





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.) 
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♦ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. }j 



FAITH, 



THE PRINCIPLE 



OP 



MISSIONS. 



BY 



THOMAS SMYTH, D. D. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 

No. 821 Chestnut Street. 



1?V' 



0^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, 

By JAMES DUNLAP, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Preface 5 

Fundamental Facts 9 

Faith, the Principle of Missions 11 

The Faith of Isaiah in the conversion of the world.. . 15 

The Faith of Patriarchs in the conversion of the 

world 23 

Our Faith provoked to exercise, not only by that of 

former ages, but also of heathen nations 33 

Faith in the conversion of the world sustained by 
invariable prophecy and practice, and by ever 
augmenting evidences 40 

This Faith essential to Christian life, and is guided 
only by the authority, requirements, and pro- 
mises of Christ 51 



PREFACE. 



The following argument and appeal may be con- 
sidered as a sequel to "The Conversion of the World ; 
or, How are the Heathen to be Converted?" published 
by the Board. In that, the purpose of God and the 
agency of man were exhibited. The union of Christ 
and his people is the divine instrumentality for the 
conversion of the world— an agency by which God is 
glorified, and man exalted. God in Christ, as repre- 
sented in sinful, guilty, and perishing sinners, gives 
"to every creature in all the world," a divine, an 
irresistible claim upon the sympathy, the love, and 
the labours of every faithful, loving, and obedient 
heart. And every zealous and self-denying believer, 
representing Christ, and faithfully exemplying his 
covenant and promise, is consecrated by an unc- 
tion from on high, which at once makes him a 
king and a priest unto God, a co-worker, and an 
ambassador of the Prince of Peace. For in his hand 

Is put the writ of manumission, signed 
By God's own signature ; to drive away 
From earth the dark infernal legionry 
Of superstition, ignorance, and hell; 
High on the pagan hills, where Satan sat, 
Encamped, and o'er the subject kingdoms throws 



b PREFACE. 

Perpetual night, to plant Immanuel's cross, 

The ensign of the gospel, blazing round 

Immortal truth ; and, in the wilderness 

Of human waste, to sow eternal life ; 

And from the rock, where Sin, with horrid yell, 

Devours its victims unredeemed, to raise 

The melody of grateful hearts to heaven. 

Such and so great, such and no less than this, is 
every Christian. 

What then is the principle by which, in this holy 
and heavenly task, the Christian is sustained? That 
principle is faith ; and the delineation of this truth 
is the one object of the present treatise. 

The term "missions" is of Latin, and not of scrip- 
tural origin. It is therefore delusive, by leading 
many to imagine that the enterprise it expresses is of 
human, and not of divine appointment. The word, 
however, is only a brief translation of scriptural 
terms which indicate the chief end and work of 
the Church and of every believer. These are both 
"sent" into the world, prepared and delegated by 
God to propagate the gospel, and to evangelize the 
world. 

How to begin, how to accomplish best, 

This end of being on earth, this mission high, 

should be to every man his one great business here. 
For even as the Father sent Christ into the world, so 
has Christ sent every disciple of his into the world, 

With holy trembling, holy fear, 
His utmost counsel to fulfil. 



PREFACE. 7 

Every believer, therefore, is one sent, that is, he is a 
missionary. He is sent on a mission. And to make 
this calling sure, and to endure to the end in every 
good word and work, is to take up his cross and 
follow Jesus. 

The Church, therefore, is a mission, and every 
Christian is a missionary. The object of this mission 
is the conversion of the world. The end to be secured 
is glory to God by the salvation of them that are lost. 
The means to be employed is the gospel. The 
principle is faith. 

It is thus obvious that the field of this mission is 
"all the world," embracing "every creature;" and 
that there can be no Home and Foreign Missions. 
These terms are purely relative and conventional. 
The centre of the missionary field is in every coun- 
try, every state, every neighbourhood, and its cir- 
cumference is that which is distant from it. What 
is a home mission in one place, and in one country, 
is foreign to every other; and what is more, it has 
a reference to, a bearing upon, and a connection 
with, every other. The Church is one. The mis- 
sion of the Church is one. The mission of every 
believer is one. The end contemplated, prayed for, 
laboured for, by every Christian, is the progress, 
the permanence, and the power of Christianity, 
throughout the whole world. For this he is com- 
missioned. This is the tenor of his "orders." Every 
dispatch from his Leader and Commander bears upon 
its face this impress, and looks to this result. Whe- 



8 PREFACE. 

ther, therefore, the Christian is male or female, young 
or old, a private member or an officer, a deacon, an 
elder, or a minister, a Sabbath-school teacher, a col- 
porteur, an editor, an author, or a publisher, he is to 
live, and labour, and give, and pray, and do all to the 
glory of his divine Saviour, in the universal diffusion 
of the glorious gospel of the blessed Jesus. To live and 
labour for self, or family, or home, or church alone, 
is to turn renegade, to violate orders, to repudiate his 
commission, to circumscribe what is universal, to 
write corban on what is for the good of all, and to 
transform apparent obedience into resistance, and 
partial duty into disobedience and selfishness. 

"Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." And 
whatsoever I do, help me to do it as unto thee, and 
for that world of which thou art the Saviour. And 
may I rejoice that I am counted worthy to be a mem- 
ber of thy universal kingdom, thy Church throughout 
the earth ; to feel that all I do is done to it, and con- 
ducive to its interests ; and that in all its glory and 
its shame, its conquests and defeats, its promises and 
prospects, I am a partaker. 

Blest Spirit which with love imbued, 

Not seeking recompense, 
Turns to the Giver of all good 

From things of sight and sense. 

How great is thy reward in store, 

To whom e'en now 'tis given, 
Christ to receive in His own poor, 

And make thy home a heaven. 



FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 



FUNDAMENTAL FACTS. 



I:sr a little volume, entitled " The Conver- 
sion of the World; or, How is the World to 
be Converted?" it was shown that the king- 
dom of Christ is destined to an absolute 
universality ; that this universality is to be 
accomplished through the agency of man; 
that for this agency man is naturally and 
spiritually endowed; that the diffusion of 
the gospel — that is, the good news of salva- 
tion — is a solemn trust, with which, under 
all dispensations of the Church, men have 
been invested ; that the holiness and happi- 
ness of believers have ever been dependent 
upon their fidelity to this trust ; and that we 
are therefore impelled to self-denying energy 
and devotion in the cause of Christ, by what- 
2 



10 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

ever of obligation and of love we owe to him 
as our Redeemer, and by all that we desire 
and hope for from him, for the increase of our 
faith and the consummation of our joys. 

The whole theory, power, and prosecution 
of Missions, Home and Foreign, therefore, 
rest upon the great fundamental truth of 
the supreme Divinity, paramount authority, 
infinite wisdom, illimitable resources, and 
boundless sovereignty of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ. 

Christ, as Head over all things, Lord of 
lords, and King of kings, has dominion over 
the nations, as truly and as fully as over the 
Church. The sovereignty of Christ over the 
kingdoms of the world is not less fully nor 
less clearly taught in Scripture, than his 
dominion over the Church; neither is it less 
essential, or less full of encouragement and 
assurance to his believing people. The de- 
cree, ratified with the oath of God, that to 
Christ the heathen shall be given as an inhe- 
ritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
as his possession; that to him every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue confess, and that 



OF MISSIONS. 11 

his kingdom shall rule over all, is thus ren- 
dered infallibly certain, not only because 
God has decreed it, but also because the 
government is upon his shoulders, to whom 
is given all power in heaven and on earth, 
and one jot or tittle of whose omnipotent 
will cannot fail. 

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

To him shall endless prayer be made, 
And endless praises crown his head; 
His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise 
With every morning sacrifice. 

People and realms of every tongue 
His love shall praise with sweetest song; 
And infant voices shall proclaim 
Loud hallelujahs to his name. 

FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 

The principle of Missions, that is, of all 
Christian enterprise, is therefore faith — 
faith in the authority, and wisdom, and 
power, and unchangeable purposes of God 
in Christ. 



12 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

Faith, to her royal standard ever true, 
Leading on high the bright and ordered line, 
And raising with firm hand her Master's sign, 
Around her throws a stole of heavenly blue, 
The cross her sceptre, and her victory too. 

As a scheme of universal philanthropy, and 
of self-denying, self-sacrificing expenditure, 
the gospel scheme for the conversion of the 
world, justifies itself only to God's children. 
It appeals not to the wisdom, or valour, or 
pitiful compassion of unsanctified humanity. 
In its estimation it is folly. As it regards 
its object, its instrumentality, its motives, 
and its achievement, it is as high above 
the thoughts of impenitent and unbelieving 
men, as are the heavens above the earth. 
It can only be understood, so as to be fully 
appreciated, and heartily believed, and per- 
severingly sustained, where there is a spiri- 
tual discernment. 

Faith guides us through the dark to Deity, 

Whilst without light we witness what she shows : 

God in his word, as well as works, we see, 
And trace the course of empires to their close. 

Faith is illimitable in its source and object. 
Its weakness is lost in infinite strength, its 



OF MISSIONS. 13 

ignorance in boundless wisdom, its narrow 
sphere in omnipresence, its partial vision in 
omniscience, its evanescent life in eternity. 
It is almighty in the mightiness of God, in- 
vincible in his power, unerring in his fore- 
sight, indomitable in his resources, confident 
in his immutability, and happy in his hap- 
piness. 

Lord, now thou art ascended high, 

And from thy temple gone, 
Let faith her eagle-wings supply, 

And see thee on thy throne ; 
Her mystic touch still feel thee here, 
And in each heart thine altar rear, 
Till thou in glory shalt return, 
And earth with heavenly love shall burn. 

That the heathen will be converted, and 
the whole world brought into subjection to 
Christ; that as a Christian I am bound to 
labour for their salvation; that my feeble 
and limited cooperation can be of important 
help in the furtherance of such a glorious 
work; that in any event such labours of love 
shall receive a full recompense of reward; — 
this is just as truly a matter of faith, founded 
exclusively upon the testimony and authority 
2* 



14 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

of God, as is any one of all the other doctrines 
of the Bible. They all stand or fall together. 
They are component parts of the same reve- 
lation, and of the same plan of redemption* 
They must be received or rejected together. 
If one be true and of infinite moment to be 
believed and obeyed, not less so is every 
other; and not less is this great doctrine and 
duty of the world's conversion. For He who 
said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved," also said, "Go ye into 
all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature." If therefore the one saying be 
true, the other cannot be less veritable; and 
if he that believeth not the one shall be 
damned, he that disobeys the other must, in 
like manner, be condemned, because he hath 
not believed on the only begotten Son of 
God. 

"Go preach my gospel," saith the Lord; 
"Bid the whole earth my grace receive: 
He shall be saved, who trusts my word, 
He shall be damned, who wont believe. 

" Teach all the nations my commands; 
I'm with you till the world shall end : 



OF MISSIONS. 15 

All power is trusted in my hands, 
I can destroy, and I defend." 

He spake, and light shone round his head; 

On a bright cloud to heaven he rode : 
They to the farthest nations spread 

The grace of their ascended God. 

THE FAITH OF ISAIAH IN THE CONVERSION OF THE 
WORLD. 

So it was from the very beginning. Let 
us revert to the prophecy of Isaiah, uttered 
nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, that 
"the glory of the Lord should be revealed, 
and that all flesh should see it together." 
This was clearly one of those "words of God 
which came of old time," through prophets 
who understood not the things that they 
uttered, though they searched diligently 
what, or what manner of time, the Spirit 
that was in them did signify when it testified 
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glory that should follow. The prophecy was 
therefore more a matter of faith and obedi- 
ence to Isaiah and his contemporary believ- 
ers, as resting more exclusively on the author- 
ity and power of God for its accomplishment, 



16 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

than it is to us in these last days. How this 
prophecy was to be fulfilled, no man at that 
day could possibly conjecture. But a very 
limited portion of the inhabitants of the 
globe, constituting "all flesh," was then 
known to the dwellers in Palestine. They 
were not entirely ignorant ; but what they 
knew was little more than enough to make 
it certain that far more remained unknown. 
Many portions of the world, of which they 
had acquired some information, were beyond 
all ordinary or safe means of access. The 
opportunities of intercommunication were 
very limited, expensive, and hazardous. The 
means for diffusing information, and inter- 
changing ideas, were also of the most imper- 
fect and unsatisfactory character. The pro- 
duction of a single volume was a work of 
industry for years, and of heavy expenditure. 
And thus also the arts and manufactures, 
which now elevate and refine society, which 
impart comfort, which induce to the cultiva- 
tion of a fixed and permanent home, and which 
secure opportunities for instruction and learn- 
ing, were then but very partially developed^ 



OF MISSIONS, 17 

and very laboriously carried on. And in ad- 
dition to all these insuperable obstacles to 
the possible accomplishment of the promise, 
the work itself was, humanly speaking, among 
the most impossible of all impossibilities; for 
even then it had become a proverb, that no 
nation had ever changed its gods. Jer. ii. 11. 
The prophecy was therefore believed to be 
divine, and to be a future certainty to the 
prophet Isaiah and contemporary believers, 
only because it was the fiat of Him whose 
will is power, whose power is infinite, whose 
infinity is wise, whose wisdom is omniscient, 
whose omniscience is omnipresent, and whose 
existence is an eternal now — the same yes- 
terday, and to-day, and for ever. 

One adequate support for Zion's hopes, 

Whose towering height seemed built on nothingness, 

"Was laid — one only ; an assured belief 

That the procession of her fate, howe'er 

Sad or disturbed, was ordered by a Being 

Of infinite benevolence and power ; 

Whose everlasting purposes embrace 

All accidents, converting them to good. 

The event foretold through Isaiah had as yet 
no existence, no being, no substance ; nothing 



18 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

that could be either seen or handled. Dark* 
ness still shrouded in moral chaos the greater 
portion of the earth, and the foretold revela- 
tion of the glory of God, and the universal 
diffusion of spiritual light, was then as incre- 
dible and mysterious as the foretold creation 
of a new world out of the original chaotic 
void would have been to beings who preceded 
it. The present certainty and infallible as- 
surance felt by the prophet, and believers of 
that age, that this event, as yet invisible and 
future, would nevertheless be literally accom- 
plished somehow, and at some time, was 
therefore founded solely upon the testimony 
of God that such should be the case. That 
testimony was believed, embraced, and con- 
fided in by them with undoubting confidence. 
This was their faith. The same principle 
which enabled them to believe, in opposition 
to all the theories of philosophy, that the 
heavens and the earth were made out of 
nothing by the word of God's power, led 
them to believe also, that a new moral 
heavens and earth would arise out of the 
chaotic ruins of this sin-cursed and polluted 



OF MISSIONS. 19 

world. " God," they said, "hath spoken it, 
and let God be true, though his truth should 
make every man's wisdom and philosophy a 
lie. With man it is impossible, but with God 
nothing is impossible; and having determined 
upon it, he will surely bring it to pass." 

Here truly is something marvellous, and 
well deserving our most earnest considera- 
tion. Let us turn aside and contemplate this 
wonderful sight. 

Oh, how great was the faith then exercised 
by the prophet and his believing country- 
men ! It was nothing less than the substan- 
tial embodiment, in actual reality, of the long 
distant consummation so devoutly hoped for; 
and the evidence, plain and irrefragable, of 
the things not yet seen. It brought, with 
telescopic eye, the distant near, the future 
present, and the invisible within the range of 
sight. It caught the triumph from afar, and 
rejoiced in hope of the glory to come. Its 
glimmering light penetrated the gloom of 
centuries, and seeing Christ's day afar off, it 
was glad. It laughed at impossibilities, and 
boldly said to every intervening mountain, 



20 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

"Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the 
sea." The unscalable mountains became a 
plain before it, the valleys were exalted, the 
rough places became smooth, and a glorious 
highway was constructed, on which the cha- 
riot of the gospel was beheld rolling onward, 
in its victorious march, conquering and to 
conquer. Against hope they believed, and 
against all the weakness and imbecility of 
man's nature, to which these events were 
utterly impossible, they were strong in faith, 
knowing that what to man was impossible, 
was possible and easy to God ; that a thou- 
sand years were to him as one day, and one 
day as a thousand years; and that what he 
has determined shall be, is as real and as 
certain as what already exists. They said, 

Therefore, if thou canst fail, 
Then can thy truth and cause. But while rocks stand, 
And rivers run, thou canst not shrink or quail : 
Yea, when both rocks and all things shall disband, 
Then shalt thou be our rock and tower, 
And make their ruin praise thy power. 

How does this faith, this hope in despair, 
this love for Christ unseen, this work for 



OF MISSIONS. 21 

Christ's kingdom, though yet unestablished, 
and all this manifested by those to whom 
Christ, "the glory of the Lord/' was yet 
unrevealed and his work unfinished — oh ! how 
does this faith of a prophetic age rebuke and 
put to shame our littleness of faith in the 
universal extension of that kingdom which 
" the glory of Jehovah," manifest as our incar- 
nate Saviour, has actually established by his 
finished sacrifice and death, and over which 
he now ever presides in all the glory and 
the power of his infinite attributes! Why, 
oh, why are we so faithless and unbeliev- 
ing! With all that was most inconceiv- 
able to the mind of man in the early pro- 
mises of redemption, brought to pass in the 
wondrous life and expiatory death of the 
divine Deliverer, why should we limit the 
high and mighty Ruler of this divine king- 
dom, or question the promise of his coming, 
or hesitate to live and act in view of the 
ultimate success of all his decrees, and the 
literal fulfilment of all his prophecies ? What 
though there are difficulties, insurmountable 
by human wisdom, in the way ! What though 
3 



22 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

but partial success has thus far resulted from 
past achievements and expenditure! What 
though clouds and darkness are round about 
the Christian host, and envelope the move- 
ments of the Captain of their salvation ! He 
who is our Leader and Commander, has all 
times and seasons, as well as all hearts in 
his hands, and in his own measure and man- 
ner will surely perform all that he has pur- 
posed, and all that he has promised. 

All hail, triumphant Lord ! 

Heaven with hosannas rings, 
While earth, in humble strains, 

Thy praise responsive sings : 
Worthy art thou, who once was slain, 
Through endless years to live and reign. 

Gird on, great God, thy sword, 

Ascend thy conquering car, 
While justice, truth, and love, 

Maintain the glorious war: 
Victorious, thou thy foes shalt tread, 
And sin and hell in triumph lead. 

Make bare thy potent arm, 

And wing the unerring dart 
With salutary pangs, 

To each rebellious heart ; 
Then dying souls for life shall sue, 
Numerous as drops of morning dew. 



OF MISSIONS. 23 

THE FAITH OF PATRIARCHS IN THE CONVERSION OF 
THE WORLD. 

But there is a sight even more wonderful 
and more overpowering than this wondrous 
faith of a prophetic age. For great as was 
the faith of Isaiah and his contemporary be- 
lievers in the future universality and triumph 
of the kingdom of Christ, it was not as great 
as that of previous ages. Isaiah had an earlier 
testimony on which to fall back. Other pro- 
phets — Nahum, Hosea, Micah, Amos, Joel, 
Solomon, David, Samuel, Moses, Jacob, 
Abraham, Enoch — had all preceded him, 
and had kindled beacon lights along the 
coasts of time, and left memorials of God's 
wonderful works already performed, as sure- 
ties of the mightier marvels yet to be accom- 
plished. God had thus, at sundry times and 
in divers manners, spoken in past times the 
glorious things in store for his Church. The 
light of prophecy and promise was kindled 
even in Eden, when God announced the 
coming Deliverer, and complete redemption to 
fallen man. It was more brightly illumined 
by the establishment of the Church in the 



24 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

family of Adam, and among " the sons of God" 
in the ante-diluvian dispensation. It was 
kept burning with bright hope, in the ark, 
amid the raging waves of a deluged world. 
It was again rekindled on Ararat, and in the 
bow of promise. The stars of heaven com- 
bined their effulgence to increase its signifi- 
cance to Abraham, and to his believing seed 
in all generations. And thus had the shining 
light shone more and more clearly and con- 
vincingly, as the perfect day of full and final 
completion drew on. 

A wanderer through the vale of years, 
Faith westward bent her pilgrim feet, 
And here hath made her blest retreat. 
A wondrous key her shoulder bears, 
The blue of heaven the stole she wears. 
When angels left sad Eden's seat, 
She staid, fallen man's companion meet: 
Again his downcast head she rears, 
And seeks the lost to calm their fears. 
'Twas she at Jordan vigils kept, 
And by Euphrates sat and wept : 
To those who still her secret prove, 
A hidden power she doth disclose, 
A word that may the mountains move. 

Now on all this series of fulfilled prophecy 



OF MISSIONS. 25 

and developed providential events, all cor- 
responding parts of the one great prophecy, 
and all conspiring to its consummation, Isaiah 
could fall back. To this law and testimony 
he could bring his own revelations. In its 
light he could see to read their obscure and 
doubtful interpretation. He could compare 
the one with the other; and finding them 
exactly accordant in principle, and only dif- 
fering in form and degree, he could confirm 
and strengthen his faith by looking to what 
was already done, while anticipating with 
undoubting assurance what was yet dark and 
distant. 

The course of Providence, in the great 
work of redemption, resembles a boundless 
ocean; the distance between the commence- 
ment and the termination of whose onward 
flow is as far as from the beginning to the 
end of time. Innumerable are the bays and 
inlets, the shoals and quicksands, the rocks 
and tempests, that interrupt and shape its 
course. And often, in the thick fog, and the 
murky night, and the lowering storm, and 
when the lights burn dim, the future has 
3* 



26 



seemed to be a dreary blank. But in Isaiah's 
time the divine chart of prophecy had hitherto 
guided the vessel of the Church safely and 
prosperously through many a fearful tempest, 
and had thus inspired her brave mariners with 
implicit confidence in steering right onward, 
amid every future vicissitude. The anchor 
they well knew was within the veil, invisible 
to mortal eyes, but sure-fastened to the eter- 
nal throne. Every new promise, and every 
fresh interposition and fulfilment, were so 
many impregnable chains fastened to it, and 
reaching out into the present and visible, so 
as to be both seen and handled and again 
made fast, by the invincible links of faith, to 
every drifting voyager. To these links there- 
fore, Isaiah and the believing hearts of his 
age could cling, and be thus held fast and 
made buoyant with hope, in all time of their 
darkness and despondency, until the day-star 
should arise, the promised morn appear, and 
the glorious day of the world's redemption 
shine forth in its meridian splendour. 

Let the storms ply their deep and threat'ning bass, 
The Bow of Promise shall the shade illume, 



OF MISSIONS. 27 

Brightly descried in Faith's eternal glass, 
E'en like an angel's many-coloured plume 
Waving in tempest — pledge that in her bloom, 
Nature, emerging from the stormy mass, 
Will keep her time and order. Let them pass — 
The wicked and their plottings ; 'mid the gloom, 
The Church surveys her covenant sign, and smiles; 
And 'neath her solemn rainbow's dripping arch, 
A mystic wing spreads o'er her daring march, 
And forth she goes, on heavenly work the whiles, 
Though weeping, sure that Christ in joy shall bring 
Earth's gathered sheaves at harvest-moon to sing. 

But to Adam and Eve, to Abel and Enoch, 
and to the early seed of the woman — the sons 
of God, the true believers — these promises, 
these prophecies, and these fulfilments, were 
all future. Satan had triumphed. Man was 
cursed. The earth groaned, being burdened. 
Cain, who was himself the hoped-for Deli- 
verer,* was already a murderer, and the child 
of succeeding promise, the first bloody victim 
of all-conquering death. As men multiplied 
sin increased, and irreligion, ungodliness, and 
apostacy abounded. And yet to them and 
their believing posterity was still held forth 

* Eve said, " I have received Him, even Him who will 
be ! The promised One ! The longed for!" 



28 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

and reiterated the glorious promise of an 
ultimate and universal establishment of the 
kingdom of Christ, the Jehovah who was to 
come, that, as the Mighty God, he might 
destroy the works of the Devil, spoil princi- 
palities and powers, making a show of them 
openly, and bring in an everlasting right- 
eousness, and a kingdom that should not be 
moved. 

How great then was the faith required of 
these primitive and patriarchal believers, to 
live, and labour, and endure, and suffer, and 
hope unto the end, for the promise to be real- 
ized to themselves and all future ages, while 
they had no other foundation to stand upon 
than the simple word, and promise, and com- 
mand of God ! How childlike, how beautiful ! 
How touchingly inspiriting, and yet reproving 
to us, is the confidence with which they laid 
hold of that one rope thrown out to them from 
above as they struggled against the floods of 
unbelieving and ungodly men, amid the whirl- 
winds of temptation and delusion, and relied 
upon the anchor of their hope, clung to the pro- 
mise and prophecy, and held fast to God, to 



OF MISSIONS. 29 

duty, and to a joyful expectation ! Oh ! how 
long was that vista through which the eye of 
their faith had to pierce ! How dark the vault- 
ed labyrinth of ages and empires, of floods and 
fires, of revolutions and dynasties, of progress 
and decay, of victories and defeats, of eclipses 
and returning light, of persecutions and tri- 
umphs, through which their faith had to wind 
its darkling way to the glorious but far dis- 
tant future ! How faintly did the lamp of 
prophecy burn, when it cast its flickering sha- 
dows and transient beams of light upon the 
waves of future ages, as these, like tides, rose 
and fell, ebbed and flowed, and what time 
they broke in fury on the shore ! For let it 
be remembered, that the whole scheme of 
redemption, and its accomplishment and 
final triumph, were all, to the faith of these 
primitive believers, future, invisible, indefi- 
nite, obscure, known only in part, and seen 
only as through a glass darkly. And yet they 
believed. They counted Him faithful who 
had promised. They staggered not through 
unbelief. They had not obtained the pro- 
mises; but they saw them afar off, and were 



30 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

glad. They rested in hope. They endured, 
as seeing Him who, though invisible, was 
sure to come, and to take to himself his great 
power, and reign. They took God at his 
word. They esteemed that word as of more 
certainty and might than all the treasures of 
earth, all the armaments of power, and all 
the wisdom and politic strategy of statesmen. 
They counted the cost. They calculated the 
chances. They weighed all consequences in 
the scales of eternity, and estimated their com- 
parative value by the arithmetic of heaven. 
And esteeming an interest in this kingdom, 
and in its ultimate glory, as of more import- 
ance than all material and sublunary things, 
they denied themselves for its sake, separated 
themselves from the world, and consecrated 
themselves, and all they possessed, to the 
promotion of the cause of Christ, and to 
the overthrow of the cause and kingdom of 
Satan. 

It was the saddest time e'er lowered on earth, 
As sin and sorrow woke in Paradise, 
When mercy's voice mid frighted nature's cries, 
Broke forth, and pledged a Saviour's birth. 



OF MISSIONS. 31 

Then faith in Adam's heart heard the glad cry, 
And the dark clond which had his soul begirt, 
Was loaded with glad prophecy, and bright 
With the eternal Saviour nigh. 

Oh! when we contemplate these ancient 
disciples of the same faith, and see them 
going forth in the grey misty morning of 
the world's sad apostacy, to contend not 
merely against flesh and blood, against unbe- 
lieving, scoffing men, and against potentates 
and rulers, but also against principalities and 
powers, with no promise of a present victory; 
when we picture them to our minds, sowing 
the seed of the word for a distant and future 
harvest; when we behold them thus toiling 
and sacrificing, not for themselves, but for 
us, who have entered into their harvest; 
when we hear Enoch proclaiming the coming 
of Christ's final and glorious kingdom to an 
unbelieving generation, and Noah preaching 
the same glad tidings, and Job exulting in 
the anticipated incarnation of a manifested 
God; when we look in upon the dying Jacob, 
and see him lifting up his eyes to this star of 
hope, and dying peacefully under the light of 
its promised salvation; when we contemplate 



32 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

Moses preferring self-denial, and sacrifice, 
and death itself in the cause of Christ, to 
the pleasures of sin, and the splendour of a 
throne; and Daniel and his compeers testi- 
fying for the supreme authority and dominion 
of a coming Messiah, in the fiery furnace and 
the lions' den; — oh! with what shame and 
confusion of face should we be filled, when we 
contrast our unbelief, our unfaithfulness, and 
our cold and lukewarm service, and our selfish 
covetousness, and our easy, self-indulgent 
benevolence! How shall we stand in judg- 
ment with them ! How will they convince, 
and accuse, and condemn us! And how far 
will they transcend our measure of reward, 
if, with our poverty of faith and works, we 
are even thought worthy of any place in their 
blest society — who, out of their deep poverty 
both of motive and of means, abounded to 
the greatness both of faith, and hope, and 
charity. 

Unto the East we turn — from the cold bourne 
Of our dull Western cave Faith's pensive mood 
Sets there her tranced eyelid, gathering food 
Of solemn thoughts, which make her less forlorn, 
While back to patriarchal men she's borne. 



OF MISSIONS. 33 

There, mid her evening and dim solitude, 
She joins the companies of the wise and good, 
Who walked upon the Gospel's glorious morn ; 
Their dwarf dimensions of mortality 
Seeming to grow upon the golden sky, 
So great, so high their heart's fidelity! 



OUR FAITH PROVOKED TO EXERCISE, NOT ONLY BY 
THAT OF FORMER AGES, BUT ALSO OF HEATHEN 
NATIONS. 

Isaiah provoked his carnal, worldly, and 
unbelieving generation, by holding up, in 
contrast with their unbelief and want of zeal, 
the faith and devotion of them that were no 
people by covenant, but to whom, by mis- 
sionary effort, the word of God had been 
revealed, and by whom that word, with its 
exceeding great and precious promises, had 
been believed and acted upon, as indeed the 
word and testimony of God. And, oh! how 
should we now be provoked, when we find 
nations that until recently lay in midnight 
darkness, awaking to the call of the gospel 
trumpet, and not only themselves receiving 
the gospel, but, clothing themselves in its 
4 



84 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

panoply, becoming the heralds and mission- 
aries of the cross to their benighted fellow- 
men. 

The Queen of Rarotonga, an island in the 
South Pacific Ocean, having about four 
thousand inhabitants, who are converted to 
Christianity, addressed recently the follow- 
ing letter to the Treasurer of the London 
Missionary Society. 

"Dear Sir — Love to you through the 
Lord Jesus the Messiah, You know that 
ours is a land of poverty, and that we have 
no gold holes here. Firewood, sweet pota- 
toes, and poultry, are the only means by 
which we can obtain money. 

" At the annual meeting of 1855 we found 
that our subscriptions did not amount to 
what we intended; and we urged one another 
to increased diligence that our subscriptions 
might be more next year. One of our num- 
ber got up and said, 'The bag for this year 
is not full. Let us try if we cannot choke 
it up before we talk about next year.' Then 
we began to search our pockets, and by some 
means or other we got up to what we pro- 



OF MISSIONS. 35 

mised, and we were very happy, and thanked 
God for giving us the means. 

"We are prospering spiritually and tem- 
porally. Men and women are imitating the 
good ways of you foreigners, who have come 
to us with the blessings of the gospel, and 
whose customs were never before known 
in this land. We are planning to get more 
money for the coming year, and we have 
already obtained something toward it. This 
is my word to you, Mr. Moneyholder. Do 
not be cast down; you have hitherto had 
much, and I hope you will yet have more. 
We will do what we can, and would do more; 
but we have no hole here where gold is found. 
These are our desires, that the word of God 
may increase among us, and spread through- 
out the world. The amount of our sub- 
scription for 1855 is two hundred and thirty 
dollars. Signed, Na Makea. 

October 4, 1855." 

The report of the London Missionary 
Society for 1856, states that the donations 
to that Society for the previous year, from 
its missionary stations, w T as £14,773 8s. 5c?., 



36 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

or about $71,000; and speaking of the in- 
habitants of Rarotonga, Dr. Van Camp, 
American Consul in the Islands, remarks : 

" It is also interesting to notice how anx- 
ious they are, both men and women, old and 
young, to contribute to the missionary cause 
abroad. They have regular missionary socie- 
ties, and at their meetings make interesting 
speeches, and get up contributions for the 
relief of the poor naked heathens of the 
West, who have not had the light of the 
gospel among them. This is done by a 
people who wear no clothing except two 
yards of common cotton wrapped around 
their loins, and on Sunday some wear a 
shirt besides. These people contribute lib- 
erally to the London Missionary Society; 
they have one day in the year which they 
call the 'neay ;' when they form in large pro- 
cessions, and carry their donations, which is 
generally of money, to the missionary house. 
They also contribute food and useful articles 
for the noble barque John Williams. On 
her arrival they also form a procession miles 
long, each carrying some article. Some 



OF MISSIONS, 37 

have pigs strung on a pole, others chickens, 
fish, yams, bread-fruit, &c." 

How does such a faith in the purpose and 
power of God, and in the success and sure 
recompense of every effort made for the 
advancement of his kingdom, as exhibited by 
such people, in circumstances of such deep 
and abounding indigence, shame the poverty 
of our contributions offered out of the abund- 
ance of our wealth, and in great weakness 
of faith, notwithstanding the clearness of the 
evidence on which we are permitted to rest, 
and the positive command by which we are 
required to give and labour and pray for the 
universal extension of the gospel and king- 
dom of Christ ! 

Let us then stir up our hearts to the 

consideration of this subject. The principle 

of Foreign Missions is not enthusiasm, nor 

fanatic zeal, or the authority of any man nor 

of any church. It is not sectarian prose- 

lytism or denominational ambition. No, it 

is none of these. It is, as we have seen, 

nothing more nor less than that faith which 

lies at the foundation of all religion — faith 
4* 



38 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

in the Bible as God's word — faith in the 
promises and prophecies of God contained in 
the Bible — faith in the power of God to , 
accomplish all his purposes — faith to believe 
that our efforts, however feeble and inade- 
quate, are mighty through God to the pull- 
ing down of the strongholds of sin and 
Satan, and that they will secure for our- 
selves a recompense of glory. It is that faith 
which confers not with flesh and blood, with 
selfishness, or even with prudence. It looks 
for no present and temporal reward. It 
asks not if the result is probable, or even 
possible. It is impeded by no difficulties or 
dangers. It shrinks from no toil or sacri- 
fice. It measures results by no scale of 
economy and penurious outlay. It only 
asks for the word and promise and command 
of God. This is enough. This is all that it 
wants. And planting itself firmly on this 
rock of ages, it consecrates body, soul and 
spirit, wealth and influence, to the glorious 
work of the evangelization of the earth. 

This principle animates the Queen and 
people of Rarotonga and many other mis- 



OF MISSIONS. 39 

sionary churches. This principle animated 
Isaiah and all believers that preceded him. 
This principle sustained Zephaniah, Habak- 
kuk, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, 
Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi, in labour- 
ing for, and expecting those future glories 
of Messiah's kingdom, of which they were 
the inspired prophets. This principle also 
gave life and love and power to the apostles 
and primitive Christians, and made them con- 
querors, and more than conquerors against 
the combined forces of earth and hell. And 
this is still the principle and the only princi- 
ple which can originate, and sustain, and 
carry on, through evil and through good 
report, in prosperity and adversity, when 
successful and unsuccessful, and in the face 
of all other apparently conflicting claims of 
home and country and kindred, the cause of 
Foreign Missions. Take away the command 
of Christ, and it is madness. Leave that 
command as it is, and it is as simple, as plain, 
and as positive a duty as that of faith and 
repentance towards God. Remove that com- 
mand, and its accompanying promise, and 



40 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

belief in this enterprise is fanaticism; but 
with these both before us, unquestioned, and 
unquestionable, unbelief in this cause is sin, 
indifference to it is treason; and the neglect 
of it for the avowed purpose of advancing 
other objects, however good in themselves, is 
to become wiser than God, and to impute to 
Him either folly or imperfection, or Utopian 
impracticable schemes. 

"Ye haughty mountains, bow 
Your sky-aspiring heads; 
Ye valleys, hiding low, 

Lift up your gentle meads, 
Make His way plain 
Your King before: 
For evermore 
He comes to reign." 

FAITH IN THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD SUSTAINED 
BY INVARIABLE PROPHECY AND PRACTICE, AND BY 
EVER AUGMENTING EVIDENCES. 

Let it then be remembered that neither 
the cause nor the principle of Foreign Mis- 
sions is peculiar to the Christian dispen- 
sation of the Church of God, or to Chris- 
tian believers. They have both, as we have 



OF MISSIONS. 41 

seen, existed from the beginning. They 
took their rise at the same epoch. They ori- 
ginated' together in the fall of man and the 
proclamation of a coming and a divine Re- 
deemer, through whom, and by faith in whom, 
sinners might be saved, and an apostate 
world be again restored to their rightful 
and only happy and honourable allegiance. 
Faith in this cause and cooperation in its 
advancement have ever, therefore, constituted 
the very character and life of the sons of God, 
as opposed to the sons of men, of those who 
served the Lord, as opposed to those who 
served Baal. They constitute, in fact, the 
life and the activity of the Church of God. 
Faith is the crowning grace, and this devotion 
the paramount duty, of religion. Faith rely- 
ing simply on the word, authority and power 
of God, and giving itself wholly to the accom- 
plishment of his will, is of all possible exer- 
cises of humanity, the most glorifying to 
God, and the most noble, exalted, spiritual, 
and divine prerogative of man. It is there- 
fore blessed with a preeminent benediction, 
in proportion as it believes, confides, acts, 



42 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

and ventures everything, without having sight 
or sense to assure its certainty — knowing 
that blessed are they who having not seen 
yet believe, and who, not wearying in well- 
doing, persevere through every discourage- 
ment, assured that in due time they shall 
reap if they faint not. 

To us the prophecy of Isaiah and the 
whole purport of the divine oracles, of which 
that prophecy is but an epitome, is, to a 
great and glorious extent, yet unfulfilled. 
We are yet in the wilderness as was Israel 
in the time of Moses. The land of promise 
is yet unentered and in reversion. But, 
like those Israelites, we have left the Egyp- 
tian land of darkness and of bondage. We 
have seen many signs and wonders, and 
mighty works wrought by our divine Leader, 
the Captain of our salvation. Many enemies 
have been overcome, and many impossibili- 
ties removed out of the way. Greater mira- 
cles than the dividing of the Red Sea, the 
water from the rock, and the manna from 
heaven, have been performed in our day. 
The Roman empire, that colossal range of 



OF MISSIONS. 43 

impassable mountains, reaching to the very 
heavens — the let* which hindered the success 
of apostolic preaching — has been taken out 
of the way, overthrown, and ground to pow- 
der, by the little stone cut without hands. 
The Mohammedan empire, the next greatest 
adversary to the progress of Christianity, 
has been undermined and weakened, and is 
tottering to its fall. All the other systems 
of false and superstitious idolatries are weak, 
and ready to perish. India, and China, and 
the islands of the sea, are opening their arms 
to the welcomed reception of the gospel. The 
ice-bound shores of the northern regions of 
the earth have caught the rays of the Sun of 
Righteousness, and are now verdant with the 
flowing streams and the green pastures of 
salvation. f 

* 2 Thess. ii. 7. 

f " The labours of the Lutheran and Moravian mission- 
aries have been so far successful among these people, 
that but few of them are now without the pale of pro- 
fessed Christianity; and its reforming influences have 
affected the moral tone of all. Before the arrival of 
these self-sacrificing evangelists, murder, incest, burial 
of the living, and infanticide, were not numbered amongst 



44 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

The vast territory of Australia is now 
teeming with a flooding tide of Christian 
population, and is supplying the very means 
for its own further and full evangelization. 
This whole continent, embracing nearly half 
the surface of the earth, has been reclaimed 

crimes. It was unsafe for vessels to touch upon the 
coast; treachery was as common, and as much honour- 
ed, as among the Polynesians of the Eastern seas. 
Crantz tells of a Dutch brig that was seized by the 
natives at the port of Disco, in 1740, and the whole 
crew murdered; and, two years later, the same fate 
befel the seamen of another vessel that had accidentally 
stranded. But for the last hundred years, Greenland 
has been safer for the wrecked mariner than many parts 
of our own coast. Hospitality is the universal charac- 
teristic, enjoined upon the converted as a Christian 
duty, but everywhere a virtue of savage life. From 
Uppernavik to Cape Farewell, the Esquimaux does not 
hesitate to devote his own meal to the necessities of a 
guest. The benefits of the missionary school are not 
confined to the christianized natives; and it is observ- 
able, that the virtues of truth, self-reliance, and gener- 
ous bearing, have been inculcated successfully with 
men who still cherish the wild traditionary superstitions 
of their fathers. Some of these are persons of strongly- 
marked character, and are trusted largely by the Danish 
officials." — Dr. Kane's American Exploration. 



OF MISSIONS. 45 

from barbarism, and is fast brightening with 
the promise of a glorious harvest. The 
superhuman system of Popery, built up and 
supported by all the machinations of earth 
and hell, though still powerful, and in some 
respects making progress, is filling up the 
measure of its iniquity, is decaying at its very 
root and heart, and only awaits the lifting 
up of the axe which has long lain at its roots, 
to call forth the universal cry of exulting 
nations, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen. " 

Much, very much, therefore, has been 
accomplished towards the full and final tri- 
umph of Christianity. Generations have 
been instructed, trained, and made ready for 
the coming of the Lord in his great power 
and might. All the preparations for a great 
and successful campaign have been manifestly 
going forward. The discovery of the mari- 
ner's compass has converted the impassable 
gulf of the ocean into the means of safe 
and easy intercommunication, whitened every 
sea with the sails of commerce, and thus 
bound country to country by all the ties of 
interest and convenience. The printing 
5 



46 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

press, which soon followed in the march of 
providence, has given wings to thought, and 
multiplied tracts and books as the leaves of 
the forest, or the sand upon the sea-shore. 
The application of steam to the various pur- 
poses of navigation, manufactures, and even 
printing, has accelerated, perfected, and 
indefinitely multiplied the resources of human 
wisdom for the furtherance of the civiliza- 
tion, refinement, and christianization of the 
earth. The discovery of the telegraph has 
annihilated time and space, or at least brought 
them within the comprehension and control 
of men. The power-loom and the cotton-gin 
have given impulse to the cultivation of a 
plant which can supply decent and beautiful, 
and at the same time cheap, clothing to all 
the inhabitants of the globe. Slavery, how- 
ever it may be denounced as imperfect, and 
attended with evil, has been employed by 
the same unerring wisdom and over-ruling 
Providence as an instrument for the preserva- 
tion, elevation and conversion of millions 
who would have lived and died in heathen 
ignorance, superstition and cruelty. War, 



OF MISSIONS. 47 

that most fell of all bloody and ferocious de- 
mons, has been converted into a source of 
peace, its spears turned into pruning-hooks 
and its swords into ploughshares, and its very 
blood made to fructify barren lands, and to 
bind together in amity and peace the ene- 
mies of many past generations. The spirit 
of evangelization has been awakened in the 
Christian churches throughout the world, 
who are now provoking one another to love 
and zeal, and devotedness in this work of the 
Lord, this mission of the Church. Even now 
the heathen world is brightened here and 
there by many a blaze of gospel light, kin- 
dled amid its savage wastes. The spires of 
Christian churches are seen rising amid the 
domes of mosques, the splendour of heathen 
temples, or amid the wild wastes of the unre- 
claimed forest. Missionaries are counted by 
thousands, and their schools, and scholars 
and disciples by hundreds of thousands. The 
Bible is translated and published, and tracts 
and volumes issued in some one hundred and 
fifty languages. 



48 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

God, therefore, is evidently preparing the 
way for a final entrance into the land of pro- 
mise. All things are becoming ready. The 
world ere long will be traversed by lines of 
steamers, railroads and telegraphs. Many 
will run to and fro, and knowledge be increased. 
Notwithstanding all the evil reports of spies 
and traitors, of recreants and cowards, "the 
sacramental host of God's elect" will be 
gathered together for the combat. The 
order will be given to go forward. The pillar 
of cloud will precede them by day, and the 
pillar of fire by night. The Jordan will be 
crossed. Jericho will be surrounded, be- 
sieged, and fall. Every enemy will be en- 
countered and overcome. The land will be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High, and the kingdoms of this world will 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
Christ. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken 
it, and it shall surely come to pass. 

Throughout the older world, story and rite — 
Throughout the new, skirting all clouds with gold — 
Through rise and fall of destinies manifold, 
Of pagan empires — through the dreams and night 



OF MISSIONS. 49 

Of nature, and the darkness and the light, — 

Still young in hope, in disappointment old 

Through mists which fallen humanity enfold, — 

Into the vast and viewless infinite 

Rises the eternal city of our God. 

Her towers the morn with disenchanting rod 

Dimly and darkly labours to disclose, 

Lifting the outskirts of th' o'ermantling gloom; 

Bright shapes come forth, arch, pinnacle and dome, 

In Heav'n is hid its height and deep repose. 

We, brethren, shall die, like Moses and 
the Israelites, before the land is entered, and 
the conquest achieved. But, like Moses, God 
has called us up to Mount Nebo, and shown 
us, outstretched before us, in all its beauty 
and magnificence, the goodly land of pro- 
mised inheritance. Like Moses, we can lie 
down and die in triumphant hope and joy, 
and with our last breath cry "Victory !" and 
"Onward!" The work will not perish with 
us. Other generations will take it up, and 
with a better spirit, and a more heroic zeal, 
fight valiantly, and contend earnestly, even 
unto blood, until every jot and tittle of all 
that God has said shall be accomplished. 
5* 



50 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

a 

Ye springs and fountains, stream and lake. 

That fill our world below, 
And bear your warrant forth to go, 
A garden here on this bad world to make, 

A thirst of life to slake. 

Ye from the secret sea of Love, 
Spring forth amid the wilderness, 

In varied forms ye move : 
Mountains and vale with beauty dress, 

And all things living bless. 

Flow on, flow on, thou mighty main, 

And send thy thousand rills, 
Through all thy secret stores which strain, 

Through dark prophetic hills, 
And wheresoe'er thy waters flow, 

The gladdening banks between ; 
Let trees in varied order seen, 
Trees of the Lord stand fresh and green, 
Till earth blooms Paradise below. 

The voice of the Lord is on the waters — lo, it soundeth; 

He only doeth wonder : 
The voice of the Lord is on the waters — it aboundeth, 

Above, around, and under, 
Proclaiming the beloved — the Son beloved proclaiming 

In living thunder ; 
And heaven, and earth, and sea, are witness to thy 
naming. 



OF MISSIONS. 51 

The waters saw thee, and were troubled, 
And now through watery deeps the living lightnings 

spring ; 
Deep calls to deep in echoing sounds redoubled : 
Go tell it forth, the Lord is King! 
The Lord sits o'er the waterfloods, 
And o'er the watery multitudes 
His Spirit broods. 

THIS FAITH ESSENTIAL TO CHRISTIAN LIFE, AND IS 
GUIDED ONLY BY THE AUTHORITY, REQUIREMENTS, 
AND PROMISES OF CHRIST. 

Shall we not, then, like Moses and Isaiah, 
and every other servant of God in every age, 
believe and obey, live and act, labour, and 
give, and pray, for this full and final glory 
of the gospel? The testimony, the evidence, 
the prophecy, the promise, the fulfilment, the 
preparation, the actual progress and success, 
are to us immeasurably greater than to them. 
Proportionably great, therefore, ought to be 
our faith; for to whom much is given, of 
them much shall be required. 

Without faith we cannot be Christians. 
Christians live, walk, and rejoice by faith. 
Faith in Christ, in his word, his Spirit, his 
providence, and his living, loving, and all- 



52 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

powerful presence, is the element in which 
a Christian lives, and moves, and has his 
being. But faith has no existence, can have 
none, knows nothing, believes nothing, hopes 
nothing, works nothing, and ceases' from 
working anything, — beyond the word and 
authority of God. The life that a Christian 
lives is lived only by the faith of the Son of 
God. And this faith, let it be remembered, 
looks to the word of God for its knowledge of 
the Church and its mission, as much and as 
implicitly as for its knowledge of Christ and 
his mission. We might as well determine, 
by our own reason and opinions, what Christ 
is, and what salvation is and ought to be, as 
what the Church is, and what she ought to 
be and to do, in order to be and to do what 
was intended by her divine Head and Founder. 
And for any man, therefore, to say what a 
church ought to be, and what it ought to do, 
in order to grow in grace, and spirituality, 
and power, beyond or beside what Christ 
teaches, is infinite presumption and folly. It 
is to substitute human testimony for divine, 
our reason for God's omniscient wisdom, and 



OF MISSIONS. 53 

our selfishness and self-will for God's supreme 
and infinite authority. 

The Church, and every Christian as a 
member of it, by the very fact of his faith, is 
that, and all that, and only that, which Christ 
ordained that they should be, and has taught 
us that they are. Now what the Church is, 
Christ plainly teaches, when he says, "who- 
soever believeth shall be saved/' and that of 
this belief he shall by baptism make a public 
profession, and become a disciple. The 
Church therefore is the whole number of 
Christ's professing disciples. This is what 
Christ teaches us the Church is. What 
the Church ought to do, Christ as plainly 
teaches, when he gave it as its great com- 
mission, its charter, and its unalterable pur- 
pose, the command, " Gro into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature." 
The Church is therefore to preach, and to 
make disciples of all men in all nations; to 
train and instruct them ; and to fit and pre- 
pare them to do, and actually and energeti- 
cally to perform all things whatsoever Christ 
has commanded. 



54 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

This, then, is the life and work to which 
every Christian, by the very nature of Chris- 
tian life and character, is consecrated, set 
apart, and made a new creature in Christ 
Jesus. To believe otherwise, and to act 
otherwise, is to believe and act, not as a 
Christian, but as one who denies Christ, and 
rejects Christianity. It is to remain igno- 
rant of the primary and fundamental teach- 
ing of Christ, and to repudiate the primary 
and fundamental duty which Christ enjoins 
upon every believer in him. Such a man 
cannot have true faith, because he believes 
not the teaching of Christ, but rejects it. 
Such a man cannot be "a disciple indeed," 
because he refuses to enlist in the very ser- 
vice Christ prescribes and commands. And 
for such a man to expect to become holy and 
happy, here and hereafter, and for a Church, 
acting in such a spirit, to expect this, is to 
expect that which Christ promises to obedi- 
ence to his command, and faith in his teach- 
ing, and cooperation with his Church and 
people, — while living in the self-willed, self- 
opinionated belief that what Christ com- 



OF MISSIONS. 55 

mands may be disobeyed; that the Church 
is not what Christ ordained and teaches that 
it is ; that the great end and mission of the 
Church is not its extension and glorious 
increase, but merely the personal salvation 
and sanctification of individual members. 

And yet is not the Church full of this 
infidelity? Are not professing Christians 
to be found everywhere, who believe, and 
live, and act, as it regards the Church and 
the heathen, and their time, talents, money, 
prayers, and influence, as if Christ had given 
no command, and founded the being and the 
well-being of his Church upon no definite 
charter, and no special promises? 

Brethren, the principle of Missions, Home 
and Foreign, is the principle of faith — the 
very essence of Christian life, and power, 
and progress. This cause lives or dies, pro- 
gresses or declines, is paramount or second- 
ary, is honoured and loved or undervalued 
and disregarded, just as the principle of faith 
exists or is wanting, is alive or dead, is strong 
or feeble, works or sleeps. This cause cannot 



56 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

die until Christianity expires. It cannot fail 
until Christ's words fail, and Christ himself 
becomes faithless, and there is no longer faith 
upon the earth. And it will grow and multi- 
ply, and be more and more taken home to 
our business and bosoms, be incorporated 
with our very hearts, and thoughts, and 
affections, and enter into all our plans and 
deliberations, our calculations and expendi- 
ture, just in proportion as the faith within 
us is alive, and active, and assimilating, and 
sanctifying. 

Oh, that my prayers ! mine, alas ! 
Oh, that some angel might a trumpet sound, 
At which the Church, falling upon her face, 
Should cry so loud, until the trump were drowned; 
And by that cry from her dear Lord obtain, 

That her first love might come again. 

Then might we behold the signs in heaven 
and on earth appearing, which shall prefigure 
the restoration of our disordered and sin- 
cursed earth, and lifting up our heads amid 
the fears and shakings of convulsed empires, 
we might be able to rejoice, because redemp- 
tion's consummated glory was at hand. 



OF MISSIONS. 57 

'Tis done! Has breathed thy trumpet blast! 
Earth's tribes at length have wept their last! 
On rolls the host ! from land and wave 
The earth sends up its ransomed slave : 
There rides no glittering chivalry, 
No banner purples in the sky ; 
The world within their hearts hath died; 
The Spirit's sword has slain their pride ! 
The look of pale remorse is there, 
The lip-involuntary prayer; 
The form still marked with many a stain — 
Brand of the soil, the scourge, the chain; 
The serf of Afric's fiery ground; 
The slave by Indian suns embrowned ; 
The weary drudges of the oar, 
By the swart Arab's poisoned shore, 
The gathering of earth's wildest tract, — 
On bursts the living cataract ! 
What strength of man can check its speed? 
They come — the nation of the freed. 
Who leads their march? Beneath His wheel 
Back rolls the sea, the mountains reel ! 
Before their tread His trump is blown, 
Who speaks in thunder and 'tis done! 
King of the dead ! Oh, not in vain, 
Was thy long pilgrimage of pain; 
Oh, not in vain arose thy prayer, 
When pressed the thorn thy temples bare; 
Oh, not in vain the voice that cried, 
To spare thy maddened homicide ! 
Even for this hour thy heart's blood streamed, 
They come! the Host of the Redeemed! 
6 



58 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

What potentate 
Sits there, the King of Time and Fate, 
Whom glory covers like a robe, 
Whose sceptre shakes the solid globe, 
Whom shapes of fire, and splendour guard ? 
There sits the Man whose face was marr'd, 
To whom archangels bow the knee — 
The Weeper of Gethsemane! 
Down in the dust ye nations kneel ; 
For now earth's withered heart can feel I 
Now let thy wan cheek burn like flame, 
Fired by the lustre of His name, 
Foretold in Eden's blest abode, 
And now enthroned thy Saviour God! 

Yes, faith fixes itself, forms its opinions, 
draws its conclusions, and regulates its con- 
duct in giving, in praying, and in acting, 
only by the word, and promise, and command 
of Christ. It goes not beyond these, either 
to the past or the future, to the present or 
the near, to the visible or the personal, to 
wisdom or philosophy. It denies self, and 
looking at home and kindred as only parts of 
the great field, it prays that Christ's kingdom 
may come in the whole earth, even as it is in 
heaven; and it does good to all men as it 
has opportunity and ability. 



OF MISSIONS. 59 

Thus acted patriarchs, and prophets, and 
apostles, and thus will we act. And leaving 
the future in God's hands, and leaving all 
results to his providence, every man that has 
a true, and a trusting, and a working faith — 
and any other is dead — will, by every means 
in his power, as God enables and prospers 
him, according as he hath, and out of the 
very first fruits of all his increase, unite in 
sending the gospel to every creature, in 
making disciples of all nations, and in teach- 
ing them all things whatsoever Christ has 
commanded. 

Faith is the substance of our hopes, 

Unseen by mortal eyes ; 
Faith is the key of prayer, that opes 

The treasures of the skies : 

Faith is the dawn of heavenly light, 

That cheers the doubting soul, 
And drives away those clouds of night, 

That round her vision roll. 

Faith is the rising of the morn, 

The sun's full blazing rays, 
When heavenly grace shall earth adorn, 

And fill the world with praise. 



60 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

Faith heaves the mountain from its base, 

And hurls it in the sea ! 
Faith is the consummated grace, 

Prepared, blest Church, for thee. 

What then though darkness cover the earth, 
and thick darkness the people ! What though 
the idolatry of India still towers liks its Him- 
alaya mountains to the unscalable heights 
of heaven ! What though China repairs and 
rebuilds her mouldering wall of exclusive 
defiance to the gospel ! What though Africa 
lies buried in the yet undiscovered mystery 
of her untrodden wastes! That darkness 
shall be dispersed, those mountains shall 
become a plain. Those walls shall be thrown 
down, and those "everlasting" gates wide 
opened, and even Africa shall unveil her 
mystery, hidden as it has been for ages 
past, and her desert wastes become fruitful 
as a garden, and blossom as the rose. The 
mouth of the Lord hath declared it, and the 
Spirit of the Lord hath wrought faith, and 
hope, and expectation in a believing chosen 
generation, to believe, and live, and labour 
for these glorious results. 



OF MISSIONS. 61 

Thou, whom in tranced ecstacy, 

The prophets dimly scann'd, 
Wert once beheld by mortal eye, 

And borne by mortal hand : 
Oh, in thy power once more appear, 
And waken every ear to hear. 

A clergyman, devoted to his work, re- 
marked recently that his hopes of the African 
Mission had declined. The remark made a 
deep impression, and, considering the cha- 
racter of the author, a somewhat saddening 
one. It occurred that possibly more might 
feel in the same way than those who express 
their feelings. 

That we have had a trial of our faith in 
this Mission is not to be denied. But, as 
has been well said, true faith will bear a 
great trial and yet live. 

Deaths on missionary ground need no 
more discourage the hearts of beholders, 
than did the deaths of the ancient martyrs. 
So far from it, the effect is often precisely 
the opposite. Instead of repelling, they 
attract. What has been the dying testi- 
mony of all the missionaries in Africa? from 
6* 



62 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

that of Mrs. Savage to that of Mrs. Hoff- 
man ? Another now comes up from the same 
field — a voice as sweet and as triumphant as 
that which we hear in the last notes of the 
trumpet of the first Apostle to the Gentiles. 
The Rev. Mr. Adams, of the American 
Board, died at the Gaboon, a few months 
ago, after labouring for a year and a half, 
in full faith, in a new field of great and pe- 
culiar trials. Passing over the account of his 
labours and his success, we give only his last 
experience and testimony when his work was 
done. While the power of God continues to be 
seen in such measures, not only in the hearts 
of the heathen, but of the missionaries them- 
selves, the contest for Christianity in this 
and every other field will be carried on until 
it shall be crowned with victory. 

About ten o'clock, Sabbath evening, he 
experienced another paroxysm of chill, which 
seemed to shake his system to its centre. 
This was followed by great exhaustion and 
considerable fever. As soon as he was able 
to speak, he remarked that he did not know 



OF MISSIONS. 63 

how his disease would terminate, but that he 
felt entire resignation to the will of his 
Heavenly Father, and an unshaken confi- 
dence in his Saviour. During the night he 
slept some, and was in a gentle perspiration 
most of the time. 

The following morning, as he could re- 
tain the medicines which were administered, 
notwithstanding the malignant symptoms, 
we hoped the disease might soon yield. But 
in this we were disappointed. About four 
o'clock in the afternoon, a sinking paroxysm 
came on, which was probably the crisis in his 
disease. His limbs became rigid, his breath- 
ing difficult, and we supposed him sinking in 
the arms of death. By the most active 
means, however, we succeeded in restoring 
him to consciousness, and in a short time he 
was able to speak. He was then informed 
that we considered his recovery quite doubt- 
ful, and asked if he had any message for his 
friends in case he should be called to depart. 
He replied that he had not, except to send 
them his love, and urge them all to be faith- 
ful, and prepare to meet him in heaven; and 



64 FAITH, THE PKINCIPLE 

tell them that he loved to abase self and 
exalt Christ, and that he had no other trust 
but Christ. 

About eleven o'clock, Tuesday morning, 
he sunk into another paroxysm, and we again 
thought him dying; but after about an hour, 
he revived, and lay for some time in a quiet 
state, during which he seemed to be engaged 
in silent prayer. Then suddenly starting 
up, with great animation he exclaimed, "I 
hear music — beautiful music — the sweetest 
melodies! I see glorious sights; I see 
heaven. Yes, the gates are open, let me 
go. I want no more of earth; detain me 
no longer, let me go ! I started once, but I 
saw demons. I saw the chains of hell and 
was afraid ! But now I see another view. 
Oh, how beautiful ! Oh, wonderful, wonder- 
ful views I have! Oh, the love of Christ, 
the love of Christ, to save such a sinner as I 
have been ! I have been very unfaithful to 
him, and yet he gives me such sweet visions 
of glory as these." 

Addressing those who stood arouni his 
bed, he said in tender accents, U I see you 



OF MISSIONS. 65 

now, and my tongue is unloosed. I see you 
wiping your eyes. Weep not for me. I am 
happy. I am sorry for you, brethren, to 
leave you to toil on alone. Would that you 
could be with me here. Be faithful, and 
God will bless you. I have been praying 
most earnestly for this Mission, and trying 
to gain evidence that it will not be broken 
up. I had hoped still to enjoy seasons of 
prayer and of labour with you, and to have 
lived to see the salvation of this people. " 

Starting again, he exclaimed with em- 
phasis, "Yes, God has showed me — I knew 
he would — what he is going to do for Africa. 
Africa shall be redeemed! Brethren, glo- 
rious times are coming! These people will 
be converted, and all this land shall be the 
Lord's. These hills back here shall all be 
holiness unto the Lord! Go on, brethren, 
be not discouraged, for I see glorious things 
in reserve for this mission. It will be sus- 
tained. Tell Christians in America that it 
will. Oh, why will they not cease wrangling, 
and wake up, and know the blessedness of 
engaging in this work? But if God should 



66 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

raise me up, and send me back to America, 
to tell them the visions I have seen, I fear 
they would not believe; no, not even if one 
should rise from the dead." 

The boys belonging to the school coming 
in, arrested his attention, and he raised his 
voice and cried out, " Oh, banabame, bishambe, 
bishambe, bishambe, (my children, beautiful, 
beautiful, beautiful !') Then, addressing them 
in English, he said, " I want you all to become 
Christians, and go and teach your country- 
men. " "Why do I linger? I am going, I 
am going; the chords of life are breaking; 
Oh, the pain — no, the bliss of dying ! There 
is no pain! Blissful, blissful, blissful! Who 
would have thought that I should have had 
these glorious views! Wonderful, wonder- 
ful, wonderful things I see !" A cup of water 
was handed to him, and he remarked, "You 
are very kind. A cup of cold water, given 
in the name of Christ, shall not lose its re- 
ward. I am satisfied; my thirst is quenched 
with the waters of life. Sweet waters ! Beau- 
tiful fountains are there!" Naming the dif- 
ferent members of the Mission he said: "I 



or missions. 67 

love them all. But my brothers and sisters. 
I fear my brothers are not Christians. Oh, 
that they were here to see me die! Tell 
them to prepare for this." "Do go and see 
Bezia, and tell him I have prayed for him," 
referring to a poor boy who is condemned for 
witchcraft, and expects to be tortured to 
death. "Why do I linger?" It was re- 
marked, "Perhaps to teach us how to die, 
and to comfort us, by your words of encour- 
agement." He replied, "No; it is because I 
have been so unfaithful. But I shall soon 
go. I shall be the first missionary buried at 
Nengenenge, and I am glad it is so ; I hope 
my ashes will be the seed of a church here. 
I rejoice that I came to Africa! How won- 
derful that I should have been permitted to 
engage in this work, and then be brought to 
enjoy such visions of glory as these! The 
bliss of this hour alone, is a recompense for a 
life of toil and suffering. I am going, I am 
going, but I have no fears, all is right!" 

It was said, "We feel that we can hardly 
spare you. Would you not be willing to 
remain and labour for these poor heathen, 



68 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE 

if it was your Heavenly Father's will?" He 
replied, " Oh, yes, certainly ; go or stay ; but 
surely he would not show me all this glory, 
and then send me back to earth again ? Oh, 
wonderful, that such a sinner as I have been 
should be brought to this, and with tongue 
unloosed, and the bonds of sin broken, see 
and describe such scenes as these! But I 
am going. Farewell. Give my love to all 
the brethren and sisters, and to all Christians, 
and urge them to live for Christ. Remember 
what I have told you. I am going. My 
speech on earth is finished."* 

Yes, departed brother, we will remember 
what thou hast told us, and hearing in thy 
dying testimony and its shout of victory the 
echo of the prophecy and the promise of God, 
we will "live for Christ," nothing doubting 
but that He who was in the beginning reveal- 
ed as He who will come, and who in the full- 
ness of time did come, and who still de- 
clares himself to be "Him who is to come," 
will come, and taking to himself his mighty 
power, reign King of nations as he is King 
of saints. 

* See the Parish Visitor, and Missionary Herald. 



OF MISSIONS. 69 

To Abraham, it was said, " In thy seed 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed ;" 
and to Moses, it was said, " Truly as I live, 
the whole earth shall be filled with the glory 
of Jehovah !" To Isaiah, it was also said, 

"A voice crying: — 
In the wilderness, prepare ye a way for Jehovah ! 
Make straight in the desert, a highway for our God ! 
Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill 

shall be made low ; 
And the crooked places shall be made straight, and the 

rough places plain ! 
And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, 
And all flesh shall see it together: — 
For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken. 

■* * * * * * 

Oh Thou that tellest glad tidings to Zion, get thee up 

into the high mountain ! 
Oh Thou that tellest glad tidings to Jerusalem, lift up 
thy voice with strength ! 
Lift it up! — Be not afraid! 
Say unto the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" 
Behold the sovereign Jehovah shall come with strength! 
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: 
He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them 

in his bosom • 
And shall gently lead those that are with young." 



70 FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS. 

"J, Jehovah, and no Goo besides me, 

A just God, and a Saviour, none beside me : 
Look unto Me, and be ye saved, 
All the ends of the earth, 
For I am God, and none else, 
I have sworn by Myself: the word is gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, 
And shall not return : 
That unto Me every knee shall bow, 
Every tongue shall swear. 
Of me it shall be said 
< Surely in Jehovah is righteousness and strength;' 
Unto Him shall they come, and all who scorn him shall 

be confounded. 
In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified and 
shall glory." 

Through all climes His glory plant! 

Through all ages chant! 
Sing praise and honour jubilant, 

As is and aye hath been ! 
All worship, all dominion, 
To Him who all things holds in one, 

The triune God unseen! 



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